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I’m in the process of completing twenty more nestbox setups just like this. Ten have been completed so far–ten more coming for this season. Three I have sold back to a local monitor with all costs for the complete nestbox setups given to an excellent local charity to help our less fortunate who live in our county. One has been installed just last week at a private residence along my trail–monies to the same charity. Woo-hoo!

This is what is in the setup:

Side-swing-down door on this observation nestbox for easy monitoring using the Virginia Bluebird Society nestbox plan made from western red cedar. This wood will weather year after year beautifully. No painting needed!

My own small black lightweight canvas “tack” supply bag I use on the trail with essential tools I need beyond my car and at each nestbox visit, which I do about twice a week.

Post driver to pound the conduit about 1.5 feet into the ground so that the top of the nextbox roof is at about 5.5 feet. (By the way, the one-inch conduit is about the right sturdiness to secure this nestbox, particularly if one of our local black bears bumps into one!)

Now that I look at it, it doesn’t look like too much at all. Also included in this picture is what to use if one chooses to spray paint the galvanized conduit and stovepipe a color conducive to disappear into nature (I suggest a dark brown). You will see white vinegar, a spray bottle for the vinegar, an old pillow case, and a good quality dark brown oil-based spray paint. What is not in the picture is a large twist tie or string to secure the pillow case over the nestbox during the spray painting. Pick a nice day to do this. Make sure NO BIRDS are nesting in a box! Put an old pillow case over the nestbox and tie the bottom. This keeps the nestbox separate from the vinegar spray and painting. (DO NOT spray the nestbox with any paint inside or out. If you use a good wood that weathers well, you need not paint the box.) First, spray the galvanized pole and stovepipe and cap with the vinegar and let thoroughly dry. Then (important) check for any winds! If you have some, you best wait on the painting. If after “pickling” the galvanized metal with the vinegar and you have determined it is dry, you can then spray paint the rest. I recommend the brand Rustoleum UltraCover 2x Matte color (only one application needed) in color Expresso. Make sure the paint is dried completely and then remove the pillow case. By pickling the galvanized metal first, the oil-based spary paint won’t peel off. By the way, do not spray paint anything if birds are using the boxes! That’s a good warning to share with you. If they are using the box, don’t do it–just wait until later in the year after the nesting season is over, such as in September. I have to be honest with you….I think the pickling and spray painting of the stovepipes are not necessary; but if you prefer it, this is how to do it. Most of mine are kept as they came from the store, including the price stickers. The priority here is to keep that stovepipe as smooth as possible. I have found greasing them won’t be necessary is MOST circumstances. If you want to purchase pre-painted stovepipe round duct, some retail outlets will sell them in black. They are a bit more expensive, however. Also, DO NOT spray paint the hardware cloth entry-hole guards.

Installation How To: Having 2 people helps! One person holding the conduit straight (use a level if you have one), use a post driver to pound the 7.5 length conduit into the ground (search for sturdy, flat ground with not too much rocks). Next, insert carriage bolt into pre-drilled hole where the ground stovepipe guard will hang. Add the two nuts and tighten with a hand-wrench. Install ground stovepipe with duct cap screwed on both sides to round duct onto the conduit so it will hang and wobble on the carriage bolt. Next, take a ready-to-install nestbox with a drilled hole in the back and open the side door. Add another carriage or machine bolt with a half-inch size washer and insert that through the pre-dilled hole on the inside and backside of the box. Then insert the box with bolt through pre-drilled hole in the conduit and add nut on other side of conduit and tighten well. At bottom of box for added support to conduit, add U-clamp over the conduit and use electric drill to install two wood screws (about 1.5″ size) through the U-clamp on each side and into box. Be sure those screws are not too long or they’ll stick through the nestbox on the inside (dangerous to birds). You should not see any screws points inside the box. The hardward cloth entry hole guard can be made and installed on box prior to setup installation. Through another follow-up post forthcoming, I will detail more tips on the installation method. Where to find these plans? Of course, you can find them on the Virginia Bluebird Society’s website: http://www.virginiabluebirds.org/nestboxguards.html You can find all kinds of helpful information there, free of charge! Do visit if you haven’t been there yet. Happy Bluebirding. Comments and questions encouraged! Leave them here!

I love this nestbox plan! Easy opening with the door swinging down so you can see top to bottom, oversized slanted and kerfed roof to shed rain, completely vented above entry hole width of box, and triangular vents on both sides at top and in backside.

Hey there would you mind sharing which blog platform you’re working with? I’m looking to start my own blog in the near future but I’m having a difficult time selecting between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal. The reason I ask is because your layout seems different then most blogs and I’m looking for something completely unique. P.S Sorry for being off-topic but I had to ask

Thanks for the inquiry on my WordPress blog’s formatting. I call it more a website/blog because I don’t use it solely for blogging purposes; but I do like the freedom to change it around freely and to allow people to leave questions and comments, which is more what blogs do. I started WordPressing in 2006. I started with WordPress, still in interface and platfrom development…recommended to me by someone else. I looked at Blogger and a few others, and liked WordPress the best. It took some time to learn it, but today’s WordPress is much more user-friendly. I have no interface-platform name to give you. WordPress allows even free blogs quite a set of free themes to choose. This page started out as standard free blogging. Since then, I’ve upgraded to allow me more freedom on the appearance and creative theme layout choices, including changing fonts, size of fonts, backgrounds, etc. There is a fee for upgrades, but not too large–I would say pretty reasonable for what you get. After working with it in the same format and theme, I decided it was time to freshen up the look. I’m happy with what I have. Of course, this is an educational-informational blog–something I enjoy doing to share everything I’ve learned through the years of learning about bluebirds and how to put up a nestbox for the birds to use and have success with it. I hope this helps a little.

How It Started–Just Why I Love Them. They Charmed Me!

So, you must know this first from me: Bluebirding is extremely rewarding! I had no idea the joys of bluebirds until I saw my first nestbox with both parents feeding their little babies early Spring 2006. This was discovered immediately upon moving into our new home with unpacked boxes crowding the rooms. I heard the sweet cheeping and the brilliant color of Papa Bluebird feeding his young. Soon, Mrs. Bluebird was feeding them as well. Soon I found myself looking out at the nest box very often to watch them. A few days later on a warm spring afternoon, I was wondering why I was not hearing that cheeping anymore. Why was it so quiet back there? I looked out my window at the nest box and, to my horror; I saw a black rat snake dangling out of the nest box's entry hole with lumps in its body. Subsequently the couple tried nesting again; and their second hatchlings died on Day 1 from the excessive 100 degree heat. I figured it out-- they were in a poorly ventilated nest box in afternoon sun -- they baked to death – they had no strength to take in food from their parents after hatching. This was an existing weathered nest box, quite quaint, obviously very old and probably was enjoyed for many years by the former homeowners. It was installed in the back yard close to the house on a 4x4 wood post. I knew something wasn't right that a predator could get to the birds so easily or that baby birds could die from the heat so quickly. Sure, "it's nature", as many say to me; but I have to ask in return: If humans put up a nestbox to invite our resident birds to use them, is that not playing a practical joke on them if we don't give them a chance to "succeed" in them without the use of predator guards? -- in other words, enticing them to use a nest box for them to use but then tell them “Here, raise your family here but NEST AT YOUR OWN RISK.” OK, a bit of joking aside, it's a point and one I have thought about in great length. There has to be a balance here with nature, of course. A natural cavity is pure nature--if a bluebird nests naturally in what nature leaves for them, and they fail because they are taken by another natural predator--that is truly nature and who am I to intervene? My curiosity and disappointment drew me to these thoughts to myself, "I have to find out how to change this! I want to see bluebirds raise a family! Can I help them succeed when I install something I make for them--a nest box from a workshop?" Obviously, after those two failures of watching these bluebirds lose their families, I became bound and determined to troubleshoot this and get a proper nest box installed for them in the right habitat to use in the future that would give them a safer place to nest and successfully bring up a family—call out to their young that it was time to leave the box and come into the world. Once I witnessed for myself maiden flights (called fledging) of healthy baby bluebirds, I became hooked on this worthy hobby, if you want to call it that -- a cause and new ambition I wanted to fulfill to help my own local bluebirds. Soon after that, I learned in my research why the numbers of the three species of bluebirds in North America declined drastically in the past century and all the challenges they still face -- even today. This is how the Woolwine House Bluebird Trail commenced -- and with the gracious help from my neighbor a few miles down my road, Carl, who worked with me to plan and build the nest boxes I wanted for my new bluebird trail in his workshop with 14 nest boxes. He graciously assisted me in the installation process, using his tools, and with annual repairs, as needed. Today, I am happy to say I will be monitoring and keeping accurate records of 33 nest boxes on my bluebird trail for Year 2013! I owe many thanks to all the property owners granting me permission to install and access these nest boxes on their private properties. These nest boxes are designs that give excellent ventilation on those very hot days, good floor drainage to help keep nests dry, the right amount of space inside the box for the nestlings as they develop and grow, easily opened for safe observation, troubleshooting issues and problems, cleaning out the soiled nests yet secure when closed, and a sloped and kerfed roof with a large overhang that repels rainwater. The bluebird population numbers have come back in the past decade thanks to the man-made nest box projects across North America. Bluebird scientists, ornithologists, and experts all agree -- bluebirds will always be in need of human assistance to continue to thrive in the 21st Century. Too many problems can take place in putting up a nestbox and then leaving it unattended—uncared for—unmonitored—unmaintained—unrepaired—without predator guards—and more. We do not want the non-native House Sparrow taking over these boxes. If wasps occupy a nest box, birds cannot. Monitoring nest boxes is a must if we want to help bluebirds and other native cavity-nesting birds. There are just too many issues that will go against them succeeding in fledging young. I also learned that an average of about 50% of fledged baby bluebirds live to be a year old. If you ask me, we cannot have too many bluebirds. This site brings you closer to my bluebird trail. Come take a walk around here and see what's happening! I am open to new ideas and suggestions--feel free to offer your comments. Come to the Facebook page and see the discussions. Ask questions. This is my passion -- I love doing this. However, I do more than bluebirding. My other interests include: Photography, Hummingbirds, Antiquing and Things Vintage, Tibetan Terriers, Horses, Steam Trains, Music Appreciation, Nature and Naturalist Activities, and Weather and Wildlife Watching -- of course, keeping the Facebook page and this website up to date. There is never time to get bored.